1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of chairs. More specifically, this invention relates to chairs for use by handicapped, physically or neurologically impaired patients.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Chairs for use by handicapped or generally physically imparied patients are well known in the prior art. Notably, wheelchairs in a variety of shapes, styles and sizes are well known and of tremendous benefit in comforting and facilitating rehabilitation of certain groups of physically impaired patients including paraplegic or quadraplegic patients.
However, at least one group of physically impaired patients--those that are neurologically impaired--are not comforted and their rehabilitation is not facilitated by the variety of chairs available in the prior art. Neurologically impaired patients suffer from injury, disease or disorder of the brain or nervous system. While there may be a large variation in the severity of neurological disorders, in many cases neurologically impaired patients suffer from characteristic symptoms of relatively total loss of muscular control and motion, loss of speech, hearing and reasoning abilities and a consequent severe limitation of their ability to care for themselves.
For the many neurologically impaired patients who are unable to sit upright in a chair because of total loss of muscle tone and control, any efforts toward rehabilitation and recovery are hampered due to the fact that rehabilitation therapy must be carried out while the patient is lying down in bed. Not only is the rehabilitation therapy process slowed down because of the limitation placed upon available rehabilitation techniques because the patient must lie in bed, but also the process is slowed down because the patient in this position tends to see little if any visible or noticeable progress and thereby becomes discouraged from actively participating in rehabilitation efforts by assisting the therapist. It has been found in practice that those neurologically impaired patients that are able to become encouraged with the progress of rehabilitation tend to participate therein and thereby become rehabilitated more rapidly up to whatever level they are capable of (depending naturally upon the extent of damage to the brain or the nervous system).
For relatively severely neurologically impaired patients, there are generally three stages of rehabilitation. The first stage generally encompasses the task of getting the patient from a prone or supine position in bed to a sitting position (or reclined) in a chair. This stage must be accompanied by sufficient therapy to have the patient recover that muscle tone and control required to maintain a sitting position. The second stage of rehabilitation generally encompasses the tasks of recovering or improving the patient's speech ability and/or developing or increasing the patient's range of motion of various limbs (which may have been affected by the neurological disorder). This second stage may be carried out in a sitting or reclined position depending upon the particular therapy chosen by the therapist. The third stage generally comprises the task of getting the patients to walk, care for themselves and perform minimal tasks on command.
Naturally, the therapy involved in all three stages of rehabilitation depends heavily upon the therapist's talent and ability to guide the patient through a selected series of therapeutic exercies and programs. To the extent that the therapist is performing various terapeutic tasks alone and unaided by the patient, the therapist's task is made more difficult and the patient's progress is hampered.
Prior art chairs for use with physically impaired patients have been unsuitable for use with neurologically impaired patients. Consequently, the rehabilitation of neurologically impaired patients has been hambered due to the difficulty of completing the first stage of rehabilitation since the patient could not be brought to a sitting position until a certain predetermined level of muscular control and tone had been developed. It has been found through experience that the sooner a patient may be brought to a sitting or slightly reclined position (even before being able to maintain that position under his or her own power), the sooner that patient would develop the required muscular control and tone to maintain that position. However, prior art chairs generally for use with physically impaired patients have been unable to support the neurologically impaired patient sufficiently to maintain that patient in a sitting position. Neurologicaly impaired patients tend to slump down into and fall to the side or even fall out of chairs because they do not have sufficient muscular tone and control to maintain their sitting position in such chairs.
Because of the tendency of neurolocially impaired patients to fall over a slump when placed in a chair, rehabilitation of such patients has included strapping them into prior art chairs so that additional therapy could be continued even before the patient was fully able to maintain a sitting position under his or her own power. Strapping a patient invariably limits the patient's ability to even try to move and this further hampers rehabilitation--even a patient's initially futile attempts to move are beneficial to the rehabilitation process since the patient is using his or her own power. Strapping also increases the probability of patient injury and, equally seriously, prevents the patient from feeling in control of his or her environment thereby having a depressing and discouraging effect on the patient's outlook which invariably decreases the patient's will and desire to get well. Accordingly, there exists a need in the prior art for a chair for use with neurologically impaired patients to enable them to freely maintain a sitting position sooner than they would normally be able to develop sufficient muscular tone and control to do so on their own.
Because the prior art chairs have not enabled neurologically imparied patients to maintain a sitting position until relatively late in the rehabilitation process, the patient's total rehabilitation progress has been rather slow and discouraging. The sooner a patient may be brought through the first stage of rehabilitation and into the second stage, the sooner that patient will become encouraged with the rate of progress, which encouragement will further induce efforts on the part of the patient to participate in the rehabilitation process rather than rely totally upon the therapist. It has been found through experience that the more a patient directly participates in the therapy, the greater his feeling of security and confidence and the more rapidly the rehabilitation process is completed and to a greater level of accomplishment. Accordingly, there exists a need to provide a means for encouraging the patient's direct participation in his therapy rather than relying passively upon the therapist's exercises.
Furthermore, the therapy of neurologically impaired patients entails considerable efforts by the therapist (or several therapists simultaneously) to move the patient from one location to another. For example, the patient must be moved from the bed to a chair (as soon as the patient can be strapped in to maintain a sitting position). Then, the patient must be moved from the chair to and from a portable toilet seat as required. Then, obviously, the patient must be placed back into bed for sleep. Each time a patient must be moved, the probability of injury occurring to the therapist and the patient increases either due to the therapist straining himself or herself, or dropping or straining the patient somehow. Accordingly, there exists a need in the prior art to provide means for rehabilitating neurologically impaired patients while minimizing the number of times and extent to which a patient must be moved by a therapist.
As stated above, once a neurologically impaired patient has undergone a sufficient amount of therapy while in bed he will be able to more easily maintain or endure a sitting or reclining position at which time naturally he will be able to undergo a different series of necessary therapeutic exercises. For example, the sitting patient may be taught again how to write, speak, draw (by writing what he speaks) and eat. However, while the patient in this so-called second stage of rehabilitation may be exposed to these new series of therapeutic exercises, the patient must generally still undergo other therapy designed to increase his range of motion and in general to improve and increase his muscle tone and control thoughout the affected parts of his body. The prior art is totally devoid of any type of chair or apparatus wherein a neurologically impaired patient undergoing rehabilitation may be exposed to the requisite therapy while also being able to directly control his own motion thereby having an opportunity to use his own muscles and move under his own power. Accordingly, there exists a need in the prior art for a chair capable of permitting a neurologically impaired patient to exercise himself and feel that he is in control of his own environment.